


A Tempestuous Situation

by silveradept



Category: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis, The Tempest - Shakespeare
Genre: Book: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-20
Updated: 2013-03-20
Packaged: 2018-05-15 03:44:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5769982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveradept/pseuds/silveradept
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lucy tries to keep the peace on the island of the Dufflepuds and meets the wizard with the magic book that can make it happen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Tempestuous Situation

The invisible being chuckled. "We used to be spirits of the air. My name is Ariel, and that ego-tripper who calls himself 'the Chief' is Caliban. The magician summoned us into being soon after he got here, and set us to work soon after. It worked out for a while, but then one night, I saw him howling at something, and afterward, he just dove in headfirst into the river here. That's when we learned that it was a branch of the Lethe, running through this strange new land."

"It changed him. He forgot what he was, and he became infinitely more cruel to all of us. He confined us to bodies of the natives of this island, long dead from the water and it's effects. And then, he started to change the bodies, raving about how we needed to learn wisdom from him, and humility, and obedience most of all. Every time he forgot, he changed us more. Eventually, we managed to make ourselves invisible, so that he couldn't change us more. Well, that angered him enough that he remembered how to banish us back to where we come from."

"And since then, you've been trying to anger him enough to get him to banish you back, aren't you?"

"These bodies are horrible. We all want to go back to what we were, and that seems to be the only way. Caliban is hoping that this ambush-humans and menace them plot will incense Coriakin enough to get them all banished. Stupid name, that. Caliban came up with it. 'Cor, 'e aginn?!' And then it stuck." Lucy got the distinct impression Ariel was shaking her head in disgust at the name.

A shout from the men sent both sprite and girl running toward what new stupidity was brewing. Caspian and Edmund looked ready to draw their swords, Eustace was trying to track the source of the sound, and Drinian looked... annoyed, perhaps. Lucy couldn't quite tell. 

"Oh, that's harmless. When Caliban says things like 'look to your weapons', he usually means fists. Once the pointy things start coming out, he'll keep a respectable distance. I'm not so sure about the one with the coronet on his head, though. He looks ready to do something stupid."

"Which one? Because they all look ready to do something stupid."

"The one next to the nymph's son. He's about to start swinging. Maybe the nymph's son will stop him."

"He will." Lucy turned to where she thought the sprite was. "Am I missing something? Why can everyone else tell that Drinian has naiad blood just by looking at him?"

"To be fair, I also heard him speak. He sounds like a nymph." At Lucy's clearly confused look, Ariel continued. "What does he sound like to you?"

"Telmarine. He sounds like Caspian."

"He almost sounds like him. He's done a really good job of trying to match the accent, but as your ears develop and you listen closely, you'll hear differences in the way he pronounces words. The sea sprites back home had the same verbal differences. Don't worry if you can't hear it now, Lucy. With time, you will. Now, what should we do about the impending stupidity over there?"

"Maybe if we made everybody visible again, they would realize they're outnumbered and stop?"

"...not a bad idea. Although, it will probably be that they see what we look like now and stop out of pity or disgust. And it might have the added bonus of enraging the magician. Sounds like a plan to me."

"What's the spell?"

"Where, you mean. It's in the magician's tower, in his books of magic. Shouldn't be too hard for you to get inside and find it." Lucy nodded and started running toward the tower.

Ariel watched her rapidly-receding form and laughed to herself. "That girl. It's been ages since I saw a Daughter of Lilith in the form of a Daughter of Eve. I wonder what her role in all of this is."

* * *

"Please put the magic book down, Lucy."

"Coriakin! I... didn't see you there."

"I know. We don't have much time, Lucy. These moments of lucidity are getting longer, but there's no telling when I'll forget again. Please listen. Put the magic book down." The magician sounded different to her. More connected, perhaps, with himself, than Ariel and the others had described. Lucy hesitated, but kept her finger on the spell.

"Why? I could release the air spirits from the bodies you put them in. I could get everyone on the ship safely and make sure we find all the lost lords. I could make peace everywhere. I could..." Lucy trailed off.

"You could...?"

When Lucy resumed, she was more subdued than her earlier confrontational tone. "I could be tall and beautiful, like Susan, and I could have kings courting me and telling me how beautiful I am, instead of princes with no interest in chess that see me as a dowry and an alliance. I could be Queen Lucy the Beautiful, instead of Queen Lucy the little sister." Lucy set the book down and sat. "I think I know how Edmund feels about Peter now."

The magician came over and sat beside her. "Yes, I know a thing or two about sibling rivalry. You don't get to be Duke of Milan without knowing who your real brothers are. Mine wanted my title more than he wanted me. So I turned to magic to try and fix things, and it only made things worse. Eventually, I was exiled here, and in my rage, I confined the spirits and then drank from the Lethe. If it were not for the lion deciding I had a part in his play, I would still be consumed by a rage that I had forgotten the why of."

Lucy looked at the magician. "So magic is bad, then?" Lucy wound up to give the magician another lecture, but he raised his hands in surrender to her. 

"Peace. Magic is not bad, as I'm sure you have seen and done. The intent behind it matters more than most magicians understand. Magic is like water, Lucy." The magician did a curious movement with his body and hands, waving and flowing his body, which was eventually joined by a stream of water, flowing with his movement until he held a ball of it lightly in his hands. Lucy poked the water lightly with her finger, and was surprised at the complexity of water so intimately held.

"You see, Lucy, water goes where the path is easiest. You can build a wall in front of it, but it will go over or under it soon enough. If there's a hole in your wall, it will go through that quite quickly. The more you compress the water, the tougher it gets. Working magic to fix things is like trying to strike a ball of water with a mallet and expecting it to not only go somewhere, but maintain the shape of the ball, too." At Lucy's confused look, he started again. 

"Lucy, what happens to this water when I squeeze it?"

"Whatever you want. You're a magician."

The magician laughed. "You're right. What would happen to this water if you squeezed it, then?"

"It would splatter everywhere. We'd both get wet."

"Exactly. Because water doesn't like not being able to go where it wants to go. It takes whatever path is easiest to get where it wants to go. The more you try to stop it, the more it tries to go around whatever you put in its way. Magic works the same way."

"So, doing magic to fix things doesn't work?"

"Almost. Doing magic to fix things is okay, so long as you're okay with the magic taking whatever path it wants to get there. It's when you try to force the magic down one particular path that you end up in trouble. At that point..." The magician clapped his hands together on the ball of water. As Lucy had predicted, the water went everywhere.

"...we get wet." Lucy finished.

"We get wet." the magician echoed with as much solemnity as he could muster, before collapsing in a fit of laughter, which Lucy joined in on after a moment of confusion.

"It took me a long time to realize that, Lucy. I'm stuck here until I can learn to let it all go and stop trying to fix everything with my magic. The more I try, the more the lethargy sets in. It's already coming back." The magician stood up to let Lucy out of the tower. "If you see my daughter, Miranda, let her know I love her, please?"

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted as a comment at Ana Mardoll's Narnia deconstruction.


End file.
